This topic should be the first stop for new members, as it contains the forum rules and some helpful guides to find your way around the forum. We ask that you read through the rules at least once, so you're aware of them and can avoid unpleasant surprises. The guides are there for if you need them.

Keep in mind the rules are subject to change, and we don't always post about these changes. Therefore, we advise you to regularly have a look through them.

First, above all else, whenever you step into the halls of PFF, you are entering G-World!! This means that everything you say and do will be like that of a G-Rated movie. (U if you are English) Pottermore is G and U Rated, so we are too.

Account rules

You are not permitted to have multiple accounts. Exceptions are made for certain events, but only with explicit permission from the forum staff!

You are not permitted to have inappropriate content appear anywhere on your account. This includes your profile.

You are not permitted to pretend to be someone else. This includes using someone else's account.

Account name

Your account name may not be the name of a Harry Potter character. If you were not aware of this rule during registration, please post in the name change request thread or notify a forum moderator.

You are allowed to change your name once every three months; name change requests go here

If your name is found to be inappropriate by the staff, it will be changed to a random name chosen by them, after which you are permitted to choose a new one. You will receive an official warning or, depending on the name, a three-day ban.

Signature

Your main signature image may not be bigger than 500 pixels wide and 200 pixels high.

Your signature may not contain any inappropriate content.

Links to other places are allowed. However, these links should not lead to websites containing inappropriate content, or websites with the sole purpose of selling a product. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis; please contact forum staff if you wish to advertise in your signature.

The total height of all items in your signature, including whitespace, may not exceed 300 pixels. The width may not exceed 700 pixels in total, also including whitespace.

To give a practical example: if your signature is currently 400 pixels wide by 200 pixels high, you have 100 pixels left for add-ons to the height and 300 pixels for add-ons on the width. So, if you have a house userbar/banner (approximately 30 pixels) that leaves you with (approximately) 70 pixels height to add above or below your signature. Anything added to the side of your signature can be as tall as your signature is, since it is not adding to the height of your overall signature, but it cannot total to more than 700 pixels (that is still a lot of space to work with!). That means you should easily be able to fit a couple buttons on the sides.

If you are on any adoptables websites, you may want to add your adoptable creatures in your signature to help them grow. Often the size is small enough to fit within the limits while the creatures are babies, but as they grow up they become bigger, thus breaking the signature guidelines. While we understand that you cannot be monitoring them 24/7, please do check them often and remove them when needed. We reserve the right to edit your signature to remove the creature if we feel it's needed.

If you need help resizing something so that your signature complies with the rules, you can post in the Art Gallery to ask one of our resident artists to help you out.

If you find yourself wanting to keep proudly showing off your badges, buttons, and signatures, but find you have no room, we recommend getting a rotator. Rotators do as the name suggests - they rotate between each image you include a code for (keeping your signature fresh, as the images are ever changing). These rotators work on avatars, buttons, banners, signatures, etc. so we highly recommend that you utilize this feature! The two sites that we use here (and the ones that seem the safest) are http://randimg.net and http://signavatar.com. We recommend against the use of grumpybumpers; the site goes down regularly and as a result creates loading problems over here. If this happens and your signature appears to be creating loading problems on PFF, we reserve the right to remove it.

If you are breaking any of these rules and guidelines, you will first receive a friendly reminder via PM from a staff member (prefect, Professor or Headmaster). Failure to comply after that will result in a warning.

We reserve the right to remove from your signature any broken images which cause your overall signature size to go over the limit. Please be aware that if an image in your rotator is broken, and the hosting website puts in a placeholder image which is larger than the allowed size, we will remove the entire rotator from your signature.

Thanks for understanding, and if you have any questions, please ask!

Notes on sizes:

Banners/Userbars - 400px by 30-40px (on average)

Badges/Buttons - 50px by 50px or 100px by 50px (on average, two most common sizes)

Sometimes, using images hosted on other websites can make it possible to circumvent the 100x100 pixels limit. If this happens, forum staff decides if your avatar size is a problem or not. If it is a problem, you are asked to change or remove your avatar. Failure to comply will result in a warning and removal of your avatar.

Posting rules

Please keep in mind that all Posting rules apply to PM (Personal Messages) and Chat, as well as the forum threads.

When you first join the forum, your first three posts will be monitored by the mods. This means that you will need mod approval to post anything. It may seem tough, but it is only to ensure that there is a positive environment for you and for everyone else. Please be patient.

You are not allowed to swear. What is and is not a swear is up to the forum staff. Some inappropriate words are automatically censored; if a member of the staff notices a censor in use, this will still count as breaking the no-swearing rule and you will receive an official warning. Images containing swears count as swearing as well. Self-censoring your swears (for instance "****ing") also count as swears and will be handled accordingly.

You are not allowed to post inappropriate content. This includes images. Depending on the severity of the offense, you may receive an immediate and permanent ban. The level of severity is decided by the staff.

We prefer videos to be embedded into the post, rather thank linking to them, as we cannot control the language and content on other websites. We currently only support youtube videos, which can be embedded with the Youtube embed code. All videos must be within the forum rules, so inappropriateness and swearing are not allowed.

You may not post spam. Spam includes (but is not limited to) the following:

posts containing only smilies or a high amount of smilies

posts containing only one word

posts which do not pertain to the topic (off-topic posts)

posts in all-caps

posts in chat speak

meaningless postsForum staff may delete spam posts and does not need to notify the poster of this.

Double posting in topics is not allowed. If you wish to add something, you can use the "edit" button to edit your previous post. You can find the "edit" button to the top right of all of your posts.

Flaming (saying hurtful things to and about others) and trolling are not allowed, neither in posting nor in PM. Joking around is not the same as trolling. This forum is a very diverse group with users and members from all over the world, from all walks of life. Do not disrespect other peoples' cultures or beliefs and DO NOT threaten or bully other members. If you are found to be trolling, you will receive a week-long ban. If you feel like you are being flamed/attacked/trolled, we urge you to report this to a moderator as soon as possible. If we don't know about it, we can't do anything about it! To report a post or PM, please click the button with the exclamation mark (!) in the top right corner of the post or message. To report this in chat, please send a PM with a summary of what has happened, plus the date and time (in forum time) to Rhynn.

Fights have no place on the forum. Handle them through Personal Message or (preferably) via a messaging system which has nothing to do with PFF.

If a forum section has specific rules, you are expected to follow them in addition to these rules. Failure to do so may result in official warnings.

If a topic has specific rules, you are expected to follow those as well.

If you wish to quote a post containing many or large images, please remove the images from the quote. They have been posted once before; there is no need to have them appear in another post as well.

Do not quote posts with a large amount of text. If you wish to quote a part of it, please only quote that part and remove all the rest from the quote.

Posts should be written in English (with the exception of the International Discussion section) and have to be legible. No using small font sizes or neon colours. With this, keep in mind that others may not be using the same forum skin as you, so what is legible for you may not be for others.

If you are part of the Hogwarts Roleplay here on PFF, we understand you might want to discuss the Roleplay in chat. However, we please ask that you do so only in the Hogwarts Roleplay channel. Of course a quick question or remark should not be a problem, but as soon as it is becoming a conversation, please move.

Rhynn, the main administrator of PFF, has access to logs of everything that happens in the PFF Chat, including whispered messages. She does not use this function unless absolutely necessary, but keep in mind that there is a very small chance of whispered messages being read by her. Rhynn will under no circumstance share the content of these whispered messages.

Topic creation

When creating a new topic, please make sure you are in the correct section. If you find out you posted in the wrong place, please report your post (you can add a comment about why you reported it), or bring it to the attention of a forum moderator. Mistakes happen; you won't be warned for letting us know you made a mistake. If, however, you regularly post in the wrong place and do not notify us, this may be grounds for an official warning.

Before creating a new topic, please search for similar topics. If such a topic does not exist, or what you wish to post does not fit in the topic(s) you found, go ahead and create your new topic. If you find a topic in the Archives, please contact a moderator to request it to be taken out of the archives.

Handling Moderation

You are not allowed to back-seat moderate. If you notice something which requires moderating, please use the report button to draw a Moderator's attention to it. Giving people a quick reminder to not break minor rules is alright every once in a while.

However, reporting posts which are perfectly fine and do not break any rules may be counted as trolling and will be punished as such. Mistakes happen of course, but if the OotM is convinced you were aware of the harmless nature of the post and still felt the need to report it, you are trolling.

Moderators are allowed to edit your post and are not required to notify you of this. They will notify you if they feel it is needed.

If you or anything you have posted has been moderated, you are expected to respect the moderator's decision and do your best to understand the reason behind the moderation, and avoid the same mistake in the future. If you feel the moderator acted wrong, please contact a Head Moderator or Administrator.

You are expected to respect the OotM at all times. They may at times be strict with you; this is not personal, it's just the moderator doing their job of keeping the forum running smoothly. Not respecting the OotM is a serious offense and will be punished as such.

If you have a problem with any member of the OotM, please contact a Head Moderator or Administrator.

Moderators are at times required to break rules in order to carry out their moderating duties. For example, a moderator may need to post a one-word post or an off-topic post. There is no need to report such posts. If, however, you feel the moderator is breaking the rules outside of their moderating duty, reporting them is permitted.

Child Safety and Privacy

EVERYTHING should be suited for minors. Keep it G/U-rated. Everyone is responsible for keeping PFF an environment where minors can participate normally, without fear of running into something inappropriate.

Sharing personal information of others is not permitted unless you have that person's written consent. Posting personal information of others will result in a warning and/or a three-day ban, depending on the severity.

Minors are not allowed to post personal information (including but not limited to photographs of themselves) without their parents' consent. The forum staff may ask a minor posting personal information to prove their parents' consent.

Members are considered minors if they are 17 years of age or younger.

Copyright and Plagiarism

You are never allowed to claim someone else's work as your own. Doing so is breaking the law and while we will not report you to the police, we will send you an official warning and/or ban, depending on the severity of your copyright breach. We may also contact the original artist whose work you infringed upon, and cannot be held responsible for any (legal) action they choose to take.

You are not allowed to redistribute PFF content unless you have asked the forum staff for permission. PFF content includes (but isn't limited to) anything on the website, Daily Prophet, Quibbler, and classes. Posts may fall under PFF content - when in doubt, ask.

Inactivity policy

If you do not log on to the forum for six months, or are permanently banned from the forum, we retain the right to delete or edit your account as we see fit. This includes but is not limited to:

Donating any points you hold in your account or in your Gringotts account to your House during the next House Cup.

Moving your Capsule Collection to a special archive thread, where it can be easily recovered if you decide to return to us.

Warning and Ban policyThese are general guidelines; forum staff reserves the right to treat each infraction on a case by case basis.

This guide will explain what the different BBCodes do, as well as giving additional information about it all. Please note that what is shown in the codes is the code the buttons will insert. You may have to add things to it, so please ensure to read the accompanying text.

PFF uses BBCode to allow users to format their posts. It is possible to input this code in both the full reply (what you see when you click the 'Reply' button, and the quick reply (available at the bottom of a thread). The advantage of using the full editor is that you can use the buttons to insert the code.

Clicking a button will insert the start of the code to the left of where you are in the editor, and the end to the right. If you've got some text highlighted then the code will go on either end of that.

The size drop-down will enable you to pick from 5 font sizes. If you select normal then no code will be put in (as all font defaults to that size), but if you select one of the others it will put in the code to change the font size. You can also change the number in the code yourself for more variety of font sizes. Please remember that posting all your posts in teeny tiny font is against the rules.

Clicking the font color button will enable you to change the fonts colour. When you click the button a selection of colours will appear above the buttons. If you then click a colour the code for that colour will be inserted. You are not limited to these colours though; the code uses 'hex' colours, and all colour variants have a hex code. You can therefore use any colour text you wish (although you should remember that posting all your posts in neon colours is against the rules).

The main use of quotes is to copy someone's post into your own. This is generally done, by clicking the quote button next to someone's post. However you can also insert it from the editor. When you do it this way it will be in a quote box, but won't say who it's quoting (you can post a quote without specifying who 'wrote' it). To add a username after 'quote' put '="username"' (substituting 'username' for the actual username) and this will then say the quote is from them. You can also put other words in, if you're using the quote for other purposes, such as showing an example.Remember you should not quote posts with large amounts of text. If you wish to quote a part of such posts, please only quote that part and remove all the rest from the quote. Similarly if a quote has images in it, please remove them (if need be put something like '[Image was here]').

The code button will enable you to post BBCode without it actually working (as shown by the numerous codes in this post). The advantage of this is if you want users to copy a particular set of formatting, they can easily do so if you put it in a code.

The url button will enable you to link text to a website address. After the = you should put in the address to where you want the link to go. If you don't add the address into the code the coding will not work. In order to change the link to text, please remember to add "]text defining your link[/url]" after the code with the link. Please remember that linking to other websites should not be done if only to advertise, direct to inappropriate content or any other sites that are in violation of forum rules.I.E.: [ url = http ://pottermoreforum. net/viewtopic . php?f=13&t=1306 ] website address [ / url ] (without spaces).

The rimg button works in a similar way to the IMG button, in that it enables you to have an image in your post. Rimg stands for 'resize image', and thus it will resize the image to fit in your post. If the image is too large for your post you should use 'rimg' instead of 'img' as it will otherwise be cut off on the right side.

The spoiler button will put a spoiler into your posts which users will have to open if they want to see what's inside it. As well as being used to hide information that could spoil things like TV shows (in which case you should write above the spoiler explaining what is in it i.e. 'Spoiler contains information about the recent episode') spoilers are also advantageous if a post has many images in it.

The List= function works like the list function, but enables you to make a list with numbers or letters. To do this you will need to put a number/letter after the =. If you capitalise the letter the list will be capitalised, and if you don't it won't. You will need to insert the [ * ] code (without the spaces - see below) to make a new number/letter in your list.

The code that this button creates will only work if it is inside the list code. If used with the normal list it will then have...

bullet points.

As mentioned above, if you use this code in a list= code then it will look like (depending on what you follow the = with)...

this.

This code does work slightly different from the rest in that it does not have a start and end code. Instead each time you put [ * ] (without the spaces) in a list, it will create a bullet point, and the text will then move onto the next line.

Clicking the center button will cause everything in between the code to be centred. This is not just limited to any text, and it will center images, codes, etc. It will also center any text inside quotes and codes.

Smilies are found on the right side of the editor. You click them to insert them. Alternatively if you know the code for a particular smiley writing that in a post will automatically change it. Clicking 'View more smilies' will show you additional smilies. Remember that posts containing only smilies, or an excessive amount of smilies will be considered spam.

The YouTube button enables you to embed YouTube video into your post, so long as you know the end of the url. You place the end of the url in between the code, and the video will be in your post. Embedding videos is highly preferred over linking to YouTube. The code you use will look this this:

Codes will not work if something additional (like a space, or a letter) is in the coding.

You can not start a similar code if you haven't closed off the old one. So if your font is red and you want the next bit blue, you need to put the end of the colour code for the red bit before starting the blue bit. An exception to this is the List code, where you can create lists within lists; you just have to make sure to close the last list off before you close off the first list.

You can insert the code without pressing the button, as long as you know how the code's made up.

A BBCode working on a different forum does not mean that you can use it here.

You should ensure that BBCode is on in the particular part of the forum you are posting in. As with whether images, url, and smilies are. (The majority of these are on throughout the entire forum). You can view this information to the right of the editor, just under the smilies.

Keyboard shortcuts:If you are on a windows computer, you can use some easy keyboard shortcuts for BBCodes and some other things.

The forum has many icons, and they all have a meaning. If you're confused, take a look at this guide for an explanation!

First of all, there are two types of icons: Forum icons and Topic icons.

Forum icons can be seen on the main forum page. If a forum section has subforums, they can be seen in the forum section as well. The forum icons tell you something about the forum section it's on.

Topic icons can be seen inside forum sections, on the list of topics. They tell you something about the topic.

So let's start with the forum icons!

Forum Icons

- The basic forum icon. If there's nothing special at all about a forum section, this is the image that shows.

- The basic forum icon, but for when there are posts in the forum section which you haven't read yet. When you read all the posts which you haven't read yet, the icon will turn into the basic forum icon.

- A locked forum. This means the forum section can be read, but you can't post in there. An example of this is the Archive.

- A forum link. This means that the forum will link to another website. An example of this can be seen in the Diagon Alley forum; in there is a forum link to a page where you can sign up for a place in Diagon Alley.

Topic Icons

- The most basic topic icon. There's nothing special about the topic if this is in front of it; you've already read everything inside of it.

- A basic topic with new posts!

- Another basic topic icon, but this one shows you that you've posted in the topic already. However, if the icon looks like this, you've already read all the posts in it.

- This means the topic is a hot topic; 25 or more posts have been made in it. With this exact icon, you have read all the posts in it.

- A hot topic with posts you haven't read.

- A hot topic you've posted in, and which doesn't have any new posts.

- A hot topic you've posted in, which has new posts

- A locked topic without any new posts.

- A locked topic with new posts.

- A locked topic you've posted in, which doesn't have any new posts.

- A locked topic you've posted in, which has new posts.

- A moved topic. This means the topic has been moved to another place on the forum. This link will be in front of so-called shadow topics, which are links which take you to the actual forum. You won't see this one very often!

- A sticky topic! Sticky topics stick to the top of the list of forums. This one means you've already read it.

- A sticky topic with new posts.

- A sticky topic you've posted in. Without new posts.

- A sticky topic you've posted in, which has new posts.

- An announcement. These are in a separate little section at the top of the list of topics. These are always important, so make sure you read them! If this exact icon is the one you see, then you have most likely already read it.

- An announcement you haven't read yet!

- An announcement you've posted in. And this one doesn't have any new posts yet.

This guide will seek to explain the User Control Panel, a handy little tool that will enhance your PFF experience.

The User Control Panel (or the UCP for short) enables you to monitor, view and update your profile, preferences, subscribed forums and topics, as well as enable you to send messages to other users (if permitted). You can access the UCP by clicking your username in the top right corner of the forum, and then 'User Control Panel' (which looks like above). The UCP is split over the following 6 tabs:

Overview - View general information about your forum activity, as well as manage things such as your bookmarks and subscriptions.

Profile - Enables you to edit not only your profile, but your signature, avatar and account settings as well.

The Overview tab has six sections to it; 'Front page', 'Manage subscriptions', 'Manage bookmarks', 'Manage drafts', 'Manage attachments' & 'Manage notifications'. In order to use the majority of these things you will first need to have made a subscription/draft/etc.

Front page:

he 'Front page' gives you an overview of your time on the forum. This matches up with the majority of the 'User statistics' section on your profile; meaning that you can see the date you joined, the last time you visited, your post count, the forum you have been most active in, as well as the topic you've been most active in. It provides a direct link to said forum/topic and to see all your posts. Note that 'most active forum' and 'most active topic' disappear when you reach a total post count of 5000.

Manage subscriptions:

'Manage subscriptions' will enable you to manage the forums, and topics that you have previously subscribed to (referred to here as watched forums/topics). This means that you can not only see your subscribed forums/topics but you can also unwatch those which you no longer wish to be subscribed to. The difference between subscribe and bookmarking (besides the fact you can not bookmark forums) is that you will receive an email notification when there is a new post in a forum/topic you are subscribed to.

In order to add a subscription to your subscribed list, when you are on a thread you scroll down to the bottom. Next to the Post Reply button, you will see a button with a wrench on it. Clicking that button opens up a little menu, including the option to subscribe to a forum. Similarly to subscribe to a topic, when in a forum you scroll down to the button and you'll see a 'subscribe forum' button; this looks similar to the 'subscribe topic' button.

(the second button, with the hammer, might not be visible to you; this is normal)

Manage bookmarks:

'Manage bookmarks' does for your bookmarks what 'Manage subscriptions' does for your subscriptions; here you can view your bookmarked threads (you can not bookmark a forum) and remove those you no longer want to have bookmarked. Unlike with subscriptions you will not receive email notification if someone posts in a thread you have bookmarked, but the feature is useful for keeping track of threads.

In order to add a bookmark to your bookmark list, go through the steps to add a subscription as shown above, but click Bookmark instead.

Manage drafts:

Drafts are post replies/new topics that you've previously started writing, and then saved as a draft to return to later. Once you've posted the post/topic the draft will be deleted from the UCP. Saved drafts only include the subject and the message, any other element gets removed.

From here you can delete drafts and you can also either load the draft or view/edit the draft. Viewing/editing the draft will enable you to edit it in the UCP. Loading the draft will load it in the area where you are going to post it. If you've edited (and then resaved) a draft in the UCP when you load the draft it will be the edited version.

To save a draft when in 'Post a reply' or 'Post a new topic' click the 'Save draft' button, as illustrated below. If you have loaded a previously saved draft from the UCP and have previewed the current version you're working on clicking the 'Load draft' button (also illustrated below) will enable you to go back to the previously saved version(s); this will delete any changes you've made. If you've edited a draft in the forum and want to resave it clicking the 'Save draft' button will save a new draft. This will not override your other saved draft.

Manage attachments:

Here you can view attachments that you've previously attached to posts on the forum. You can sort your lists of attachments by numerous criteria here including file name and post time. You can see what topic the file was attached to, the name of the file, the amount of times the files been downloaded (viewed) and when it was posted. You can also delete your attachments from here in a similar way to removing a bookmark.

To add an attachment to a post when creating a new post scroll down below the preview/submit buttons and there will be a tab that says 'Upload attachment'. You then browse your computer for the file you wish to add and put a file comment. The attachment will then be attached to your post, and will look like the image below.

Threads that have an attachment in them have a little paper-clip next to their name, when you're looking at them on a thread list/in a forum.

Manage notificationsHere you can see all the notifications you've received. You can get notification for things like receiving a private message, being quoted, when there's a reply to a topic you've bookmarked, etc. You can click each of the notifications to be taken to whatever the notification is about.

The edit profile section enables you to add details to your profile. This includes Pottermore information, such as your username and house, as well as more general information like your birthday (this will display your age) and gender. You do not have to add any such information, and you should ensure that you do not give away highly personnel details, particularly if you are a minor. This information may be viewed my other members. The 'notes' section you can fill in however you see fit.

Edit signature:

Signatures are text/images that appear under your posts (unless you untick the 'Attach a signature' box when you make a post). Editing the signature is similar to making a post; you can put in text, as well as use BBCode to add images/change how the text appears. For more information on using BBCode check out the BBCode Guide.

If you do not wish for signatures to be displayed you can turn of this option in the 'Edit display options' section of the 'Board Preferences' tab.

Edit avatar:

Your avatar is the image that appears to the right of all of your posts. Avatars must be no larger than 100 x 100 pixels, and not be larger than 34.18 KiB in size. This section will allow you to use an avatar image that is somewhere else on the internet (you will need to know the link to it), pick an avatar from the forum's gallery, or upload your own from your computer.

If you do not wish for avatars to be displayed you can turn of this option in the 'Edit display options' section of the 'Board Preferences' tab.

Edit account settings:

In the 'Edit account settings' section you can change your email address and your password. To do both of these things you will need to input your current password. You cannot change your username in the UCP, unless you are a V.I.P. member (users who wish to change their username can make a request here). When you initially come in to this section the 'E-mail address' line will have the current email related to your account in the field.

Remember that no member will ever ask for your password.

Manage "Remember Me" login keys

This section lists all the times and places (in IP address) where you've logged in to the forum and ticked the 'remember me' box. To stop any of those places from logging you in automatically, tick the box next to the one you want to remove, scroll down and click 'delete marked'.

'Edit global settings' enables you to edit some of your base settings for the forum. This includes who can contact you, both via email and via Private Message (administrators and moderators will always be able to send you private messages on here). As well as this you can set it so that your online status is hidden. Although this is an option you can choose to select each time you log in that hides your online status, selecting it here will hide your status each time.

You are also able to change your time, date and language settings here, as well as your board style (only available if there are multiple board styles installed at the time).

Edit posting defaults:

'Edit posting defaults' alters which of the tick boxes just underneath the text field in 'Post a new Reply'/topic are ticked. If you select 'Yes' then the box will automatically have a tick in it when you go to post something, and if you select 'No' it won't. If you have an option chosen, but want to post with the other option instead of altering your settings in the UCP you can tick/untick the box just underneath the text field in 'Post a new Reply'/topic i.e. I have 'Attach my signature by default' set as 'Yes'. If I make a post and I don't want to have my signature attached to that particular post, I can untick the box, instead of having to go alter my settings in the UCP just for one post. The tick boxes look like below:

Changing your posting defaults in the UCP will not alter the posting settings for your previous posts. It only alters which of the boxes underneath the text field in 'Post a new Reply'/topic are automatically ticked, and which are not.

Edit display options:

'Edit display options' enables you to alter what you view on the forum and how you view posts/topics. This means that you can change how their order looks to you, although there would not be that much of a practical use for this. The most practical part of 'Edit display options' is that you can choose to not view images, flash (this option serves no purpose as flash is turned off on the forum) and smilies (as images) in posts, as well as signatures and avatars on the forum.

Edit notification options:

Here you can alter what you receive notifications for. For each of the options, you can choose to receive an email, a notification, both or neither, by checking the boxes of what you want to receive.Please note that not all the options shown in the screenshot may be available to you; this is normal.

For the 'Private messages' part of this guide I have added 'DawnPumpkin33' as a 'Friend' and 'Patronus 27' as a 'Foe' (curious on adding Friends/Foes? See the 'Friends & Foe' spoiler); this is simply because I have recent PM's from them both, and thus can screen-cap some of the points, so I hope neither minds. :] ))

You can get directly to the 'Private Messages' tab by clicking 'Private messages [0]' near the top right corner of the forum (see the image above). This will take you directly to your inbox. If you have new messages the '0' will be replaced by the number of new messages you have. Once you've gone to your inbox the number will return to '0' even if you haven't actually read the messages.

Compose message:

'Compose message' enables you to send a private message (PM) to another member. You can send a PM to numerous recipients (up to five), or to the groups listed in the box on the top right of the above image. Composing a PM is similar to making a post, you enter the text in the main field, can add smilies, and use BBCode.

To add a recipient type their name into the field towards the top left of the white section in the above image. You can also use 'Find a member' to add a user; this will bring up a new window, which has the same search criteria as the members list. Once you've found the member you want to PM, you tick the box next to their username, and then press 'Select marked'. This will then put their username into the field where you would write them. Once you have written/selected a username press 'Add' to add them to the 'To' list. If you've have a friends on your 'Friends' list, then you just need to click the 'Add' button next to their username.

If you want to send the PM to another user without the person/people on the 'To' list seeing click 'Add [BCC]'. This will add them to the 'BCC' list. To add one of the groups to either of these instead of writing 'Professors' (etc.) you should click on that group in the box then click Add'/'Add [BCC]'. Once you've selected those you're PM'ing it will look like this:

Manage PM drafts:

Drafts are PM's that you've previously started writing, and then saved as a draft to return to later. Once you've sent the PM the draft will be deleted from the UCP. Saved drafts only include the subject and the message, any other element gets removed.

From here you can delete drafts and you can also either load the draft or view/edit the draft. Viewing/editing the draft will enable you to edit it in the UCP. Loading the draft will load it in 'Compose message'. If you've edited (and then resaved) a draft in the UCP when you load the draft it will be the edited version.

To save a draft of a PM click the 'Save draft' button, as illustrated below. If you have loaded a previously saved draft from the UCP and have previewed the current version your working on clicking the 'Load draft' button (also illustrated below) will enable you to go back to the previously saved version(s); this will delete any changes you've made. Clicking 'Save draft' on an already loaded draft will save it as a new draft, and thus not override the other draft.

Inbox:

When in your 'Inbox' you can see all the messages that people have sent you (unless you've deleted them); this means you can see who sent it, the PM's title/subject, and the date/time it was received. To view a message click on the PM's title/subject.

If a PM has a light blue background it's the one you're hovering over, otherwise it will have a yellow background. The line at the left/right of each PM is a key to the sort of person who sent it, and if you've replied. If it is a message that you've replied to it will also be light blue. If you haven't replied and it's from a friend it will be dark blue, and if you've not replied and the message is from a foe it will be black. Messages that are orange at the side are one's you've marked; to mark a message tick the box at the left of the screen then select 'Mark/Unmark as important' at the bottom and then press 'Go'. To unmark a message you've marked as important tick the box again and then select 'Mark/Unmark as important' at the bottom and press 'Go'.

To delete a message from your inbox tick the box at the left of the screen then select 'Delete marked' at the bottom and then press 'Go'.

You can export your PM's from the bottom of your inbox. You can export them in three ways; 'Export as CSV', 'Export as CSV (Excel)' & 'Export as XML'. 'Export as CSV (Excel)' will download an Excel file that contains five columns; PM title, From, Date/time, Blank and Message content (the columns don't have names, but that's what they are).

You can vary the order your message are sorted in, and which ones you see by the options at the bottom of your inbox. You can also move through the different pages of PM's at the bottom (as you can at the top of your inbox).

Outbox:

The 'Outbox' works the same way as your 'Inbox' but these are the messages you've sent to other's that they've not yet read. If you delete a message here the user will not be able to see it, and instead the message will appear in their inbox like this:

Sent messages:

The 'Sent messages' box also works like your 'inbox'. Messages in this folder have been read by the recipient, so if you delete them the recipient will still be able to read them.

Rules, folders & settings:

The 'Rules, folders & settings' section allows you to create new folders to store your PM's as well as set rules in place. There's a variety of rules you can create using the different break downs. The elements that make up the a rule depend on what 'If' (Subject/Sender/Message/Message status/Sent to) you initially select. Once you've made a rule it'll appear at the top of the section. To delete a rule you click the 'Delete rule' next to it.

To create a new folder fill in the 'Add folder' field with a folder name, and then click 'Add'. Once you've created a folder you can rename it in the 'New folder name' field. The ability to delete a folder is just under this. When deleting a folder you can select the option to move all the PM's in it to another folder, or to delete them all.

You can also choose what option happens if your inbox is full; the oldest messages can be deleted, messages can do somewhere else, or not to except new messages until there is space. To change your default option here choose one of the three 'If folder is full' options and then click 'change'.

Once your inbox is full, and you don't have a rule in place, you'll see a message like below.

The 'Edit memberships' section enables you to see what groups you are a member off on the PFF. You can technically change your default group setting here, but your default group should remain your house group! (If you've not been sorted into your house, click here.)

Manage groups:

The 'Manage groups' section serves no purpose for general members, other than clarifying that 'you are not a leader of any group'.

(( As with the 'Private messages' section I have added 'DawnPumpkin33' as a 'Friend' and 'Patronus 27' as a 'Foe' for this section of the guide; this is just to get some screen-caps again. ^^ ))

Manage friends:

Adding a friend will mean that their PM's are more prominent in your inbox, and that they appear in a friends list in the UCP. This list appears on every section of the UCP (it's the small white box in the image above). This not only makes it easier to access their profile, but it makes it easier to send them PM's as you can just select their username from your 'Friends' list (for more information see the 'Compose message' part of the 'Private messages' spoiler).

To add a friend fill their username in, in the 'Add new friends' field (you can add numerous users at once, just put each username on a different line). Once again you can use the 'Find a member'; this will bring up a new window, which has the same search criteria as the members list. Once you've found the member you want to add to your friends list, you tick the box to to their name, and then press 'Select marked'. This will then put their name into the field. Once the name(s) are in the 'Add new friends' field click 'submit' and this will update your friends list.

To remove a friend from your friends list click their name in the 'Your friends' box and then click 'submit'. This will update your friends list. You can remove and add users to your friends list in one submit.

Manage foes:

Adding and removing foes from your foes list works just the same way as adding/removing friends from your friends list. You cannot ignore moderators or administrators, and someone on your ignore list can still send you PM's (you can set up a PM rule to address this).

Once someone is on your ignore list their posts will not be visible to you by default. You will still see that there's a post by them in the topic, but it will be hidden until you click 'Display this post'. The posts will initially look like this (the really light text is the bit that says 'Display this post'):

One of the first things new members may notice when they join, is the Quick Links bar across the top of the page.

As you can see, there are many other links within this bar. What this guide aims to do, however, is to break down the PFF points features: how to earn them, how to use them, how to store them.

All new members receive a registration bonus of 50 PFF points- if you do not, please contact a moderator as soon as possible. From there, you earn 1.00 points for each reply that you post. These points can be earned from posts throughout the forum, including Common Rooms. The only exception to this is that games, forum or common room, do not earn you points, nor do they increase your post count.

The next question we always get is "But what are these points for?" PFF Points can be used for three main reasons: donating to another member or House, purchasing Lottery tickets, or storing them in Gringotts. Once you acquire a fair amount of points, you may also use your PFF Points to purchase tokens for the Capsule Collection machine.

Within the Overview drop down menu, as shown above, you will find the links to the various areas where you can use your Points. To get to this menu, click on the 'PFF Points' text in the Quick Links bar across the top of the page.

Donate (Transfer) Points:There are two ways to donate points to a member or, if during a House Cup Competition, to your House.1) Click on the member/House's name at the bottom of the index page OR from their mini-profile beside each post and then click "Donate" under the points. Then, just enter the amount of points you would like to donate.

2) Click on your points and then click on the "Transfer" tab. Enter the member or House name (for example, Riverfirebolt or Ravenclaw House) and the amount you would like to donate. You may also add a comment in the accompanying box (for example, "Congrats for solving Hangman!" or "Go Ravenclaw!"). Please note that once points are donated, they are no longer yours and cannot be retrieved (unless the member receiving them is generous enough to donate them back to you).

Purchasing Lottery Tickets:To purchase lottery tickets, click the "PFF Lottery" link within the Overview tab.You may purchase up to 5 lottery tickets per drawing, at a cost of 7 PFF points per ticket.Each drawing starts with a base 77 points per pot, and has no maximum cap (the current record is an amazing 32760!).The drawing goes off once an hour and if you are the winner, our resident PFF Owl will send you your winnings!

Storing Points in Gringotts:To store your points in Gringotts, click the "Gringotts" link within the Overview tab. Points stored in Gringotts are safe from any forum-wide points wipes, which may happen right before a House Cup.The minimum deposit is currently set at 5 points, with no maximum deposit guidelines.You earn 8% interest per week, which is automatically deposited into your account.Please note: the system auto-populates your points into the deposit and withdraw boxes! Please check before you finalize any actions.

This guide will explain the PFF Chat function, a nice way to interact with other members.

The PFF Chat is a chatroom only for members of the Pottermore Fan Forum; no one else can enter the chat room. To access the chat, find the 'Open Chat' button at the top of the forum (next to your PFF points).

The chat will open in a new tab or window, depending on your browser settings. It will look like this:

We'll go over each section in turn.

LogoutClicking the Logout button will log you out of the chat. It will not log you out of the forum! When leaving the chat, it's best to use this button instead of just closing the window. Closing the window may cause you to appear online in chat when you aren't actually, so people might start talking to you. When you log out using the Logout button, other people in chat will see the following message:

Closing the window will eventually cause the following message to appear in chat:

Channel

When you enter the chat, you are automatically put into the default channel, Public. However, there are more channels than just that one! In fact, each section of the forum has its own channel. So if you can see a forum, there's a channel for it.

To go to a different channel, click the dropdown menu (where it currently says 'Public'). This will bring up a list of all the available channels. Click the one you want to go to, and you'll be taken there automatically. The channel you just left will get the following message:

As you can see it doesn't list what channel you went to. Still, people might come looking for you, so it's best not to use this for having conversations which should be private.

When entering a channel, the following message is shown:

Style

The Style option allows you to change what the chat window looks like. You can choose any of the available styles by clicking the dropdown menu and picking the one you like. The style will only change for you and there's no notification of you changing the style in the chat window, so feel free to change as much as you like!

The standard style of the chat is prosilver.

Language

With the Language drop-down menu, you can select the language you want the chat to be in. Keep in mind this can only change the standard text and buttons from the chat itself; it cannot change the language of what people are saying.

Connection strengthAt the top right of the chat window, is a coloured circle. This circle shows the strength of your connection to the chat. It can have three colours, green, orange or red:

Green means you have a strong connection, orange means you have a slow connection, and red means you have no connection.

It's normal for the button to go orange for an instant. As long as it's green most of the time, your connection is good.

If the button shows you have no connection, this can mean several things:

Your internet connection is bad or gone

The forum is down

There's something wrong with the chat

If the forum is down, all you can do is wait for it to come back online. Check the PFF Twitter account for information if the downtime lasts a long time.If the forum works fine but it's only the chat that doesn't work, this means there is something wrong with the chat. If you aren't sure Jag17 or Rhynn already know of this, please send them a message to inform them of the problem; they will then check the problem and work on a solution.

Chat area

The chat area is where all messages and automatic notifications appear. Each message lists the time it was sent (this time follows the timezone set in your account settings), the username of who sent it, and the actual message. If it's a message you sent yourself, there will also be an x button on its rightmost end. Clicking this will allow you to delete the message. Moderators are able to also delete messages other people sent.

By clicking on the username of anyone who has sent a message, their username will appear in the posting area. This can be useful if you want to send them a whispered message, or if you want to include their name in their message but are having trouble spelling it.

Online users

The Online Users section, which is to the right of the chat area, lists all the users who are online in that channel at the moment. As you can see in the screenshot, there are different-coloured usernames. These colours tell you who the chat moderators, and who the administrators are. The exact colours change depending on the style you are using; the colours shown are those of the prosilver style.Administrators have all the possible functionalities the chat offers, including kicking moderators out of the chat and banning them from the chat.Moderators can kick, ban and delete messages of normal users, but not other moderators or administrators.

When you click on a username in this area, you get a list of things you can do. By clicking on their username again you can close this list. The list has the following options:

Send private message: this will send a whispered message to the user. Whispered messages can only be read by you and the recipient. They will look like this in the chat area:

When someone whispers to you, this is what it will look like:

When you click the 'Send private message' option, you will see the message '/msg Username' (with username being the member you are trying to message' appear in the writing area. You can start typing your message after this text. Make sure there is a space between the username and your first word!

Important note on whispers! Whispered messages are generally a very private method of communication. There is, however, one person who has the ability to read whispers: Rhynn. She can do this by going into the chat logs, so she cannot read them when she is in the chat normally. Rest assured however that she only goes into the logs when it is absolutely necessary, for instance when something against the rules happened in there when there was no moderator to handle it. In these cases she will do her utmost best to not read the whispers, but naturally this is difficult to do. She will never share any of the contents of the whispers.

Send private action: similar to private messages, except these are for actions. Actions are simply messages which describe what you are doing; these can be very fun for roleplays, for instance. Private actions make sure the action is only sent to the user you selected. They look like this, with the top one being a normal action and the bottom one a private action:

Open private channel: when you're having a long private conversation with someone, you can use this option to invite them to a channel just for the two of you. When you are in the private channel, you can invite other people in there as well by typing /invite followed by the username. The invitation will look like this if it was sent successfully:

The invitee gets a message only they can see, with a link they can click to enter the channel.

Close private channel: if you've opened a private channel to the person, this is how you can close it again. If there is no private channel open, clicking this will result in an error.

Ignore/Accept: By clicking this, messages from the person will be ignored. They will simply not appear in the chat area. The same counts for whispers the other person send you. You can still send them private messages and actions, however, as well as open private channels to them. To remove them from the list, click Ignore/Accept again. Messages the person sent while they were on your Ignore list will not suddenly appear, those are invisible to you forever.Keep in mind that using this functionality may make conversations highly confusing, as others can still reply to messages sent by the person you are ignoring!

When clicking your own username in the Online users area, you get other options than when you click another person's username:

Logout: does the same as the Logout button at the top left

List online users: this lists all the users who are currently online, in all channels. This message in the chat area is only visible to you.

List ignored users: this shows the usernames of everyone who is in your list of ignored users. By clicking their name you can remove them from your list.

List available channels: this will give you a list of all the channels which are available. Keep in mind that PFF is a big forum and has a lot of channels as a result, so this could be a very large message!

Describe action: this describes an action, as shown above.

Roll dice: this enters the text needed to roll a dice in the writing area. See below for more details.

Change username: this changes your chat username. This is temporary; your username will revert back to your normal one as soon as you leave chat. It also does not change your username on the forum.

Enter private room: this opens a private channel for yourself. This can be useful if you want to roll a lot of dice, or want to test out chat functions.

When you are online in the chat, you will get an asterisk (*) next to your name in the Who is Online section at the bottom of the forum index. It looks like this:

In this screenshot, the users DawnPumpkin33 and Poppy are online in the chat. Many members check this regularly, and will enter chat as well if they see there's someone online.

Writing area

The writing area is where you write your messages. Click on the blank text area to start typing. You can click any of the smilies below the area to insert them into the text area. There is a maximum to the amount of characters you can use in one message: 1040. The counter next to the Submit button tells you how many of them you have already used.

Below the row of smilies, are several buttons:

This bolds the text in the writing area you have selected. If you have no text selected, it will add the correct tags to do so in the writing area, so you can start typing between the tags.

This italicises text

This underlines text

This quotes text. You cannot specify a username of who you are quoting, and you have to enter the text yourself (if you actually want to quote what someone said, you will have to copy their message and paste it between the tags). Quoted text looks like this:

The Code button allows you to put any code other than BBCode in the chat (this is normally not possible). So if for instance you want to show someone an example of how to write some HTML code, you would use this tag. Code text looks like this:

The URL button helps you with sending a link. When you click the button, you'll get a window similar to this one:

You have to enter the url of the link you want to send in that box. Clicking OK will make some text appear in the writing box. It looks like this:

If you were to submit the message now, it will look exactly like that; the link will not be clickable. To make it clickable, put some text before the [ /url] tag. If you were to put 'hey' there, the resulting message will be 'hey' which can be clicked to take you to the link you entered.If you want to send a link without it being 'hidden' behind any text, you can just write the link as is in the writing area and submit; it will automatically become clickable.

This one inserts into the writing area the tags needed to make an image appear in the chat area. Please do not send any large images; small images are acceptable. Larger images should be sent as a link instead.

By clicking this button, you can change the colour of the text you send. When you click it, you will get the following box:

Choose the colour you want, write your message between the tags it makes and submit to see your message in your chosen colour.Keep in mind that it may be difficult to read certain colours on certain backgrounds, and that people can change the style. This means that text which is legible for you, can be completely illegible for others!

Options

At the bottom right corner of the screen are some buttons.

gives you a list of possible things you can do by typing the correct code. Each should be relatively self-explanatory; you can always try them out (just make sure you don't bother anyone when doing so; if needed, go into your private channel!)

This allows you to change several settings. Feel free to play around with them.

Clicking this button shows or hides the list of online users.

If you click this, you can turn off the sounds chat makes. Keep in mind not all browsers actually make the sounds. To turn them back on, just click the button again.

Normally, the chat automatically scrolls down as new messages appear. You can stop them from doing this by pressing this button. When pressed, it changes to . Clicking that button will make the chat scroll down automatically again.

Rolling diceOne particular function of the chat we use a lot, is rolling dice. There is a very short explanation of this in the help button, but it is nowhere near clear enough, so we're highlighting it here.

If you just click the Roll dice option by clicking your username in the Online users section and selecting it from there, you see '/roll' appear in the writing area. Submitting the message will roll one dice with six sides, which looks like this:

If you read the message carefully, you see that you have rolled 1d6, and the result is 3. The 1d6 bit is what's important right now. Let's break down what that means.

The first number, in this case the 1, tells you how many dice were rolled. The d just stands for 'dice'.The second number, in this case 6, tells you how many sides the dice you rolled have.

This would mean that the dice you rolled is a simple, regular dice.

However, you can roll up to 100 dice with up to 100 sides. In essence, this function is a random number generator. To roll a specific number of dice with a specific number of sides, you specify these numbers in the writing area. For instance to roll 50 dice with 100 sides each, you would enter the following text: